VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala or Faro?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Antigua Guatemala’s own page.

Choose Faro for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Faro’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Antigua Guatemala 6, Faro 74: Faro leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala and Faro are level on 48.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Faro 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Faro 32: Antigua Guatemala leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Faro 62: Antigua Guatemala leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Faro 64: Faro leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Faro 60: Faro leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala and Faro are level on 60.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Faro 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Faro 60: Antigua Guatemala leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Faro 30: Faro leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Faro 33: Antigua Guatemala leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Faro.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Faro
49match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaFaro

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaFaro
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123112
Elevation1,582 m10 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaFaro
City population59,09164,560
People per km²-319
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or Faro somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.